WEBVTT

00:00:00.423 --> 00:00:03.987
When you have a job that pays you enough
to cover your basic needs,

00:00:03.987 --> 00:00:06.934
your bills, and even some more to spend,

00:00:06.934 --> 00:00:08.918
the assumption is that you'd be happy,

00:00:09.085 --> 00:00:11.116
or, even better, fulfilled.

00:00:11.116 --> 00:00:14.480
And it seems unthinkable
when you wake up and say

00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:17.488
you're going to leave a job like that
to pursue a passion.

00:00:17.488 --> 00:00:20.980
And that was my dilemma six years ago.

00:00:21.291 --> 00:00:24.702
I had a comfortable job,
I lived a comfortable life,

00:00:24.702 --> 00:00:27.505
and people expected me to be fulfilled,

00:00:27.505 --> 00:00:29.089
but I wasn't.

00:00:29.089 --> 00:00:32.128
There was something
in me that wanted more.

00:00:32.128 --> 00:00:35.467
There was a misalignment between
the things I did on a daily basis

00:00:35.467 --> 00:00:38.456
and the things that I deeply cared about.

00:00:38.456 --> 00:00:41.767
And so I decided to quit

00:00:41.767 --> 00:00:45.187
and explore the possibility of bringing
this passion into my daily routine.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:45.660 --> 00:00:48.568
And the think about finding your passion

00:00:48.568 --> 00:00:50.213
is that it's not straightforward.

00:00:50.213 --> 00:00:53.437
Even for people and money and degrees,

00:00:53.437 --> 00:00:55.511
they still struggle
to identify their passion.

00:00:55.511 --> 00:01:01.751
And here I was as a 30-year old
talking about finding my passion

00:01:01.751 --> 00:01:03.836
and turning it into a career.

00:01:03.836 --> 00:01:06.106
Literally, people told me,

00:01:06.106 --> 00:01:08.663
"You don't talk about passion
until you've made enough money."

00:01:08.822 --> 00:01:10.388
(Laughter)

00:01:10.388 --> 00:01:13.736
"Or at least until
you're ready to retire."

00:01:14.574 --> 00:01:17.404
Because, there's a notion
that looking inward

00:01:17.404 --> 00:01:20.078
and finding the things that give us
pleasure and fulfillment

00:01:20.078 --> 00:01:23.681
is a luxury that only the rich can enjoy,

00:01:23.681 --> 00:01:28.590
or a pleasure that only
the retired can indulge in.

00:01:28.590 --> 00:01:29.926
Which made me wonder:

00:01:29.926 --> 00:01:32.580
is passion only for the rich

00:01:32.580 --> 00:01:36.468
or an experience only
the retired can enjoy?

00:01:36.468 --> 00:01:39.372
For many of us, we've been led to believe

00:01:39.372 --> 00:01:42.142
that life is a race for survival.

00:01:42.142 --> 00:01:45.159
We've been conditioned to see ourselves
as survivors that must do everything

00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:48.167
in our power to survive.

00:01:48.167 --> 00:01:53.039
In Africa, we had to go
through school, cram and pass,

00:01:53.039 --> 00:01:56.180
in the hope that you get a job after,

00:01:56.180 --> 00:01:59.655
and if you do, stick at it
no matter how much it sucks.

00:01:59.655 --> 00:02:01.106
(Laughter)

00:02:01.106 --> 00:02:05.352
Until you get a better offer
or you're asked to retire.

00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:08.784
And as a dropout,

00:02:08.784 --> 00:02:10.601
I knew that I was not
entitled to anything.

00:02:10.601 --> 00:02:14.318
Every opportunity was a privilege.

00:02:14.318 --> 00:02:17.180
And so when I thought about quitting,

00:02:17.180 --> 00:02:18.845
it was a huge risk.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:18.845 --> 00:02:21.522
I was given two alternatives,

00:02:21.522 --> 00:02:23.322
which are the most popular in Africa.

00:02:23.322 --> 00:02:28.176
The first one is sign up for any course
at a vocational institution and do it.

00:02:28.176 --> 00:02:32.677
My second option, settle
for any job offer you can get,

00:02:32.677 --> 00:02:34.789
no matter the working conditions,

00:02:34.789 --> 00:02:36.373
and do it.

00:02:36.373 --> 00:02:39.091
That probably explains why we have
so many of our young people

00:02:39.091 --> 00:02:41.876
being trafficked in search
of greener pastures.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:42.657 --> 00:02:45.019
I opted for the first option.

00:02:45.019 --> 00:02:47.271
I did look at a couple
vocational institutions

00:02:47.271 --> 00:02:51.171
in the hope that I would find a course
that resonated with my persona,

00:02:51.171 --> 00:02:54.242
my dream, and my aspiration.

00:02:54.242 --> 00:02:57.885
I was disappointed to learn that there
was no room for misfits like me

00:02:57.885 --> 00:03:00.697
in these institutions.

00:03:00.697 --> 00:03:03.360
The education system
in many parts of the world

00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:05.538
has been designed
around pre-selected options

00:03:05.538 --> 00:03:09.609
that young people are expected
to fit in or risk becoming misfits.

00:03:10.083 --> 00:03:13.052
And so going through school
I was nurtured and conditioned

00:03:13.052 --> 00:03:17.639
to think in the straight line
and stay within the straight line.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:17.639 --> 00:03:20.469
But when I dropped out, I discovered
a world of possibilities.

00:03:20.469 --> 00:03:23.204
I knew I could be anything,
I could study anything,

00:03:23.204 --> 00:03:26.374
so I leveraged free online courses.

00:03:26.374 --> 00:03:29.053
That's how I built my CV,
got into employment,

00:03:29.053 --> 00:03:31.270
and worked for eight years.

00:03:31.270 --> 00:03:34.235
And after eight years,

00:03:34.235 --> 00:03:35.766
I told myself there must be more to life

00:03:35.766 --> 00:03:38.036
than just going through
the routines of life.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:38.036 --> 00:03:41.250
So in 2014 I started
an organization called Kyusa

00:03:41.250 --> 00:03:43.832
where we are working
with other school youth

00:03:43.832 --> 00:03:46.779
and empowering them to turn their passions

00:03:46.779 --> 00:03:49.753
into profitable, scalable
and sustainable businesses.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:50.144 --> 00:03:51.879
Now, when we talk about passion,

00:03:51.879 --> 00:03:55.671
one of the most common questions
that people ask is, "What is passion?

00:03:55.671 --> 00:03:58.040
How do I even find it?"

00:03:58.247 --> 00:04:00.374
And in the simplest definition,

00:04:00.374 --> 00:04:02.724
passion is a collection
of your life experiences

00:04:02.724 --> 00:04:06.455
that give you the deepest
sense of fulfillment.

00:04:06.455 --> 00:04:09.946
And to identify your passion,
you need to look inward.

00:04:09.946 --> 00:04:13.397
So we used two reflective questions.

00:04:13.397 --> 00:04:15.353
The first question we ask is,

00:04:15.353 --> 00:04:18.236
if you had all the time
and the money in the world,

00:04:18.236 --> 00:04:20.695
what would you spend your time doing?

00:04:20.913 --> 00:04:22.668
It sounds like a very simple question,

00:04:22.668 --> 00:04:25.334
but many people struggle
to answer this question

00:04:25.334 --> 00:04:28.156
because they've just
never thought about it.

00:04:28.343 --> 00:04:30.444
The second question we ask

00:04:30.444 --> 00:04:33.079
is, what makes you happy

00:04:33.079 --> 00:04:35.607
or gives you the deepest
sense of fulfillment?

00:04:35.607 --> 00:04:38.162
Now, you would assume that we all
know what makes us happy,

00:04:38.162 --> 00:04:41.590
but it's also interesting to note
that so many people have no idea

00:04:41.590 --> 00:04:43.292
what makes them happy,

00:04:43.772 --> 00:04:47.180
because they are so busy
going through the routines of life,

00:04:47.180 --> 00:04:49.452
they've never stopped to look inward.

00:04:49.993 --> 00:04:53.981
And so identifying the things that give us
a deep sense of fulfillment

00:04:53.981 --> 00:04:56.030
and the things that give us deep joy

00:04:56.030 --> 00:04:59.474
are thoughts that begin to direct us
in the direction of our passion.

00:04:59.876 --> 00:05:03.045
And just in case you're wondering

00:05:03.045 --> 00:05:03.772
what your answers are
to those two questions,

00:05:03.772 --> 00:05:07.024
I invite you to sit with those questions
later and just reflect about it.

00:05:07.496 --> 00:05:12.018
However, I am also aware
that passion alone

00:05:12.018 --> 00:05:14.210
cannot guarantee success in life.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:14.957 --> 00:05:16.603
And I should note

00:05:16.603 --> 00:05:19.658
that not every passion
can become a career.

00:05:19.944 --> 00:05:22.416
For passion to become a career,

00:05:22.416 --> 00:05:27.707
it must be coupled with the right set
of skills, conditioning, and positioning.

00:05:27.991 --> 00:05:31.854
So when we get our young
people to look inward,

00:05:31.854 --> 00:05:33.539
we also ask them what skills do you have,

00:05:33.539 --> 00:05:36.179
what talents do you have,
what experience do you have

00:05:36.179 --> 00:05:40.554
that you can use to build
a niche in the marketplace.

00:05:40.554 --> 00:05:43.125
But more than that, we also
look at the market trends,

00:05:43.125 --> 00:05:45.851
because it doesn't matter
how much you love and enjoy it.

00:05:45.851 --> 00:05:48.779
If nobody wants it
or is willing to pay for it,

00:05:48.779 --> 00:05:51.505
it can't be a career. It's just a hobby.

00:05:52.137 --> 00:05:57.408
And the third thing we look at
is how do you position yourself?

00:05:57.408 --> 00:06:03.282
Who are you targeting?
Who do you want to sell to?

00:06:03.282 --> 00:06:04.394
Why would they want to buy from you?

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:04.394 --> 00:06:06.605
And so the combination of the three
is what enables you to move

00:06:06.605 --> 00:06:09.818
from just a passion to a business.

00:06:09.977 --> 00:06:12.632
And many of our young people
have been able to turn their ideas

00:06:12.632 --> 00:06:15.517
and burning desires
into profitable businesses

00:06:15.517 --> 00:06:17.163
or social enterprises,

00:06:17.163 --> 00:06:19.539
and they're not just creating jobs,

00:06:19.539 --> 00:06:22.880
but they are solving societal challenges.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:22.880 --> 00:06:24.793
I'll share with you two examples.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:25.078 --> 00:06:26.717
One of them is Esther.

00:06:26.717 --> 00:06:29.040
I met Esther two years ago.

00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:31.470
She had been out of school for two years

00:06:31.470 --> 00:06:34.827
and she had been deeply affected
by her dropping out.

00:06:34.827 --> 00:06:37.749
As a result, she had experienced
severe depression

00:06:37.749 --> 00:06:41.327
to a point where she attempted
to take her own life several times.

00:06:41.327 --> 00:06:44.222
Her friends and family
didn't know what to do for her.

00:06:44.222 --> 00:06:46.647
They simply prayed for her.

00:06:46.647 --> 00:06:49.861
When I met Esther and I started
to converse with her,

00:06:49.861 --> 00:06:51.517
I asked her a simple question.

00:06:51.517 --> 00:06:54.241
I said, "If you had all the time
and the money in the world,

00:06:54.241 --> 00:06:55.851
what would you do?"

00:06:55.851 --> 00:06:58.462
Without thinking or hesitation,

00:06:58.462 --> 00:07:00.793
her eyes lit up and she began to tell me

00:07:00.793 --> 00:07:02.760
how she wanted to change
the lives of young people.

00:07:03.048 --> 00:07:05.689
She wanted to restore
hope and dignity to other teenagers

00:07:05.689 --> 00:07:09.784
by helping them make
informed decisions about life.

00:07:10.908 --> 00:07:14.378
I was certain of the fact
that this burning desire in her

00:07:14.378 --> 00:07:15.731
was unquenchable,

00:07:15.731 --> 00:07:19.702
so we worked with Esther
to put a framework around this desire.

00:07:19.702 --> 00:07:22.900
Today, she runs a social
enterprise in her village

00:07:23.124 --> 00:07:27.643
raising awareness about substance abuse,
mental health, sexual reproductive health,

00:07:27.643 --> 00:07:31.919
and is helping other school dropouts
acquire vocational skills

00:07:31.919 --> 00:07:32.169
so they can make a living for themselves.

00:07:32.169 --> 00:07:35.692
Esther turned 20 this year,

00:07:35.692 --> 00:07:42.434
and for the last two years,
she has organized and annual teen fest

00:07:42.434 --> 00:07:47.027
that brings together over 500 teenagers.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:47.027 --> 00:07:49.108
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:51.401 --> 00:07:54.215
Young people that are able
to network and collaborate

00:07:54.215 --> 00:07:55.362
on different projects,

00:07:55.362 --> 00:08:00.057
but more importantly to meet professionals
they would otherwise never have met.

00:08:00.325 --> 00:08:04.329
This is all engineered by a girl that
believed the world had no room for her,

00:08:04.329 --> 00:08:08.033
that without education
she would never amount to anything.

00:08:08.033 --> 00:08:11.959
But by looking inward
and tapping into a burning desire,

00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:13.451
putting structure around it,

00:08:13.451 --> 00:08:15.510
it has become a model

00:08:15.510 --> 00:08:17.659
that not only changed her life

00:08:17.659 --> 00:08:21.516
but it's transforming the lives
of hundreds of young people every year.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:21.516 --> 00:08:23.214
My other example is Moussa.

00:08:23.214 --> 00:08:25.942
Moussa is a natural artistic guy.

00:08:25.942 --> 00:08:29.210
He's the kind that would look
at any design and replicate it with ease.

00:08:29.210 --> 00:08:32.914
And so he seeks to recognize
that ability in him.

00:08:32.914 --> 00:08:35.940
When I met Moussa,
he was doing all kinds of crafts --

00:08:35.940 --> 00:08:38.660
bags, belts, wallets --

00:08:38.660 --> 00:08:40.016
but it was more of a part-time thing,

00:08:40.016 --> 00:08:44.850
or sometimes, if he was really broke
and needed to make quick money,

00:08:44.850 --> 00:08:49.274
then he would come up
with a design and sell it.

00:08:49.274 --> 00:08:49.915
But he had never thought
of it as a business.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:49.915 --> 00:08:50.833
We started working with Moussa,

00:08:50.833 --> 00:08:54.727
helping him shift his mindset
from a hobby to a business,

00:08:54.727 --> 00:08:59.096
and beginning to rethink, how can he
make products that he could sell

00:08:59.096 --> 00:09:00.911
and even be able to scale?

00:09:00.911 --> 00:09:04.312
Moussa makes some of
the most amazing bags I've ever seen,

00:09:04.526 --> 00:09:07.606
and over the last one year
Moussa's business has grown.

00:09:07.606 --> 00:09:09.628
He has been recognized
in different places.

00:09:09.628 --> 00:09:13.145
Currently, he's talking about
exporting to developed countries.

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:13.145 --> 00:09:15.405
Moussa, like any other dropout,

00:09:15.405 --> 00:09:18.005
believed that without
academic credentials,

00:09:18.005 --> 00:09:20.107
he wouldn't amount to anything.

00:09:20.107 --> 00:09:22.457
He thought the talent he had was nothing

00:09:22.457 --> 00:09:27.604
simply because it did not have
an academic paper to define it.

00:09:27.604 --> 00:09:31.813
But by looking inward and finding
that what he had was the greatest asset

00:09:31.813 --> 00:09:34.065
and supporting him
to turn it into a business,

00:09:34.065 --> 00:09:36.549
he's not just living, he's thriving.

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:37.503 --> 00:09:41.653
The thing about looking inward
is that it can be scary,

00:09:41.653 --> 00:09:44.483
especially if you're doing it
for the first time,

00:09:44.483 --> 00:09:47.671
but the truth is you never
truly start living

00:09:47.671 --> 00:09:51.134
until you learn to live
from the inside out.

00:09:51.882 --> 00:09:56.145
And in unlocking potential,
we need to look inward to identify

00:09:56.145 --> 00:09:59.010
the things that give us
a deep sense of fulfillment,

00:09:59.010 --> 00:10:01.125
the things that give us the deepest joy,

00:10:01.125 --> 00:10:04.528
and then weave them into
the patterns of our daily routines.

00:10:04.528 --> 00:10:09.572
In so doing, we cease to work
and we start to live,

00:10:09.572 --> 00:10:13.662
and the thing about living is that
you never have to retire or to resign.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:13.662 --> 00:10:15.252
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:16.028 --> 00:10:21.118
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:21.127 --> 00:10:24.369
And so as you think about
unlocking potential for ourselves,

00:10:24.369 --> 00:10:27.022
for our young people, for our children,

00:10:27.022 --> 00:10:29.853
let's not condition them to look outward

00:10:29.853 --> 00:10:31.633
but condition them to look inward

00:10:31.633 --> 00:10:37.022
to tap into who they are and bring
that self into what they do every day.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:37.022 --> 00:10:39.755
When you cease to work and you live,

00:10:39.755 --> 00:10:41.577
when passion becomes a career,

00:10:41.577 --> 00:10:43.430
you don't just excel,

00:10:43.430 --> 00:10:45.551
you become unstoppable.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:46.162 --> 00:10:49.750
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:49.750 --> 00:10:52.378
(Applause)